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196 ECONOMIC INQUIRIES AND STUDIES
Debt amounted to about one-third or one-fourth o.
the whole capital of the community, it is now perhaps
no more than one-twentieth. Whereas formerly it was
almost the sole Stock Exchange security, it is now less
than one-tenth of the securities quoted on the London
Stock Exchange alone. The exact figure of such
stocks quoted in the official list of the London Stock
Exchange at 31st December, 1898, is stated to be
£7,609,000,000, of which, as'already mentioned, about
£ 2,000,000,000 are foreign Government issues. In
addition, the markets for securities all over the world
(in the United States, in Germany, in France, in
Austria, in Italy, in Russia, and in our Australian
Colonies and South Africa) have increased in even
greater proportion; and as they all form practically
one market, the relative importance of Con sols has
greatly diminished. Many securities are dealt in in
more markets than one, especially Government securi-
ties; but making all deductions for such double entries,
one can hardly be wrong in estimating that the figure
above stated for issues dealt in on the London Stock
Exchange would at least have to be doubled if we
were to include the issues upon all the different markets
throughout the world. Of this vast mass, English Gov-
ernment securities are clearly a very small percentage
indeed.
3. While the mass of the English Government Debt
with reference to other securities has thus been di-
minishing, it is also to be noticed that the amount in
the hands of the public has diminished even more than
the amount of the Debt itself, and this diminution has
been very marked in recent years. This is chiefly the
consequence of the investment of savings bank money
in Government stocks. The total amount of such sav-
ings bank money is now about £ I 80,000,000, all of
which must be invested in the English Government
Debt, while other amounts of stock are held by other
departments of the Government. It would seem that
admitting the amount of the . English Government